DAZ 3D is required to collect sales tax for several states. The ones that I'm aware of are Utah, Texas, California, and now Georgia. There may be some others. I have the administrators looking into this.

Even if Daz still has an office in California (the Carrara team) it would be prudent for them (Daz) to read the new legislation regarding downloads, as California changed and updated them in time for the iPad 3 launch and many downloadable items no longer require tax to be charged

Some of your Internet sales—including sales for resale, sales of cold food products, and sales delivered outside of California—may not be subject to California sales or use tax. Common exemptions are described in publication 73, Your California Seller’s Permit. More detailed information is found in publication 61, Sales and Use Taxes: Exemptions and Exclusions.

Products electronically transmitted to customers

Your sale of electronic data products such as software, data, digital books (eBooks), mobile applications, and digital images is generally not taxable when you transmit the data to your customer over the Internet or by modem. However, if as part of the sale you provide your customer with a printed copy of the electronically transferred information or a backup data copy on a physical storage medium such as a CD-ROM, your entire sale is usually taxable.

An eBook is an electronic version of a traditional print book that can be read by using a tablet computer or by using an eBook reader. Users can purchase an eBook on diskette or CD, but the most popular method of getting an eBook is to purchase a downloadable file of the eBook without purchasing any physical storage medium. A mobile application, also known as a “mobile app”, is computer software designed for use on a smartphone or tablet computer. The transfer of a downloadable file such as an eBook or an “app” without purchasing any physical storage medium is not a taxable transaction.

If your company sells canned (noncustom) software programs to customers who download them from a server, those sales are generally not subject to tax. However, if you also provide your customers with a backup copy on a CD-ROM, the entire transaction is taxable. Similarly, if you transmit a stock (noncustom) database to your customer over the Internet and also provide a printed copy of the contents, the entire sale is subject to tax. For more information regarding the sale of computer programs and data processing services, you may wish to obtain a copy of Regulation 1502, Computers, Programs, and Data Processing.

Yeah, for example, I just bought Diablo 3 Digital Download because I don't pay tax on that as opposed to a physical copy. So I am not sure why I am being charged tax for California all of a sudden buying items from DAZ.

Is it normal forthe Daz Store to charge sales tax? Here in California where almost everything is taxed,on-line sales are not taxes, nor is software or services so I was supprised to see an extra 10% on the SuperSuit invoice. I also paid 139, 20 more than the flyer says platinum goes for. Whats up with these discrepancies. Help submit ticket is not working for me.

Tax laws vary from country to country, but as far as I know, DAZ doesn't charge sales tax on international orders (and I believe this is typical of international e-commerce--no sales tax). I saw someone from the UK post on the DAZ Facebook page (this was before the forum reopened) that he wasn't charged tax on his order.

Is it normal forthe Daz Store to charge sales tax? Here in California where almost everything is taxed,on-line sales are not taxes, nor is software or services so I was supprised to see an extra 10% on the SuperSuit invoice. I also paid 139, 20 more than the flyer says platinum goes for. Whats up with these discrepancies. Help submit ticket is not working for me.

My understanding is that on-line sales tax is going to be required in CA starting in Sept. of this year. So they may have just started collecting now since they were configuring the store.

Technically, I think, and I may be wrong, we are supposed to pay sales tax anyway on online purchases, but since the retailers haven't been required to collect it (up until this fall), it's impossible to enforce.

For anyone curious, this is an LA Times story about how Amazon, who fought quite hard to prevent CA from collecting sales tax from online retailers and managed to delay the law, is now going to profit in rebates from the tax it collects:

You're typically taxed through your local bank when you send orders outside your country. In Norway, the limits are USD $33 (not much!!), so I keep my purchases below this limit to avoid taxes. If I were to be taxed for all my DAZ3D-purchases bunched up through a year, I'd faint.

was going to purchase an item today, but when it came to checkout, there was a sales tax applied to my purchase. since when do New York State residents pay sales tax for Daz purchases? upshot, no purchase made...

Is it normal forthe Daz Store to charge sales tax? Here in California where almost everything is taxed,on-line sales are not taxes, nor is software or services so I was supprised to see an extra 10% on the SuperSuit invoice. I also paid 139, 20 more than the flyer says platinum goes for. Whats up with these discrepancies. Help submit ticket is not working for me.

My understanding is that on-line sales tax is going to be required in CA starting in Sept. of this year. So they may have just started collecting now since they were configuring the store.

Technically, I think, and I may be wrong, we are supposed to pay sales tax anyway on online purchases, but since the retailers haven't been required to collect it (up until this fall), it's impossible to enforce.

That is Amazon that is supposed to be starting to collect CA sales tax for online purchases in September 2012 because they are building two distribution centers in Patterson and San Bernardino, CA.

Very interesting! I guess I did not understand about the exemption for software transmitted electronically.

Ok, um, DAZ... Sales tax refunds, pretty please?

Edit: also i think the Modesto Bee story you linked to is the same as the LA Times story I linked to :)
As I understand it, it isn't so much Amazon having to tax because they are building the centers, they are building the centers because CA legislature closed the loophole, so Amazon doesn't have an incentive to stay out of the state anymore.

Very interesting! I guess I did not understand about the exemption for software transmitted electronically.

Ok, um, DAZ... Sales tax refunds, pretty please?

Edit: also i think the Modesto Bee story you linked to is the same as the LA Times story I linked to :)

After reading that Modesto Bee article it's not just Amazon, but other online retailer's are required to collect California sales tax for online purchases due to legislation passed in 2011. From reading the article the implementation is delayed until 9/2012. I'm looking around to see if that legislation changed the tax exemption status for internet digital downloads.

Edit: BOE Publication 109 regarding CA sales tax collection on Internet sales was updated in 2/2012 to clarify the tax exempt status of purchases of downloadable digital content. I found a discussion of the "tax break" here:

After reading that Modesto Bee article it's not just Amazon, but other online retailer's are required to collect California sales tax for online purchases due to legislation passed in 2011. From reading the article the implementation is delayed until 9/2012. I'm looking around to see if that legislation changed the tax exemption status for internet digital downloads.

I'm interested to hear what you find. I've been following this issue but as I said I didn't know about the exemption for electronically transmitted software (including ebooks and other media downloads).

That seems like it would require a different change to the law, since this is clearly a specific exemption (that benefits Apple for one, who is based here, and who I imagine would not be silent on this issue if the change *were* to affect them), whereas the Amazon loophole had to do with sales of products that would have otherwise been taxed if Amazon ever set foot in the state, and which customers should have volunteered taxes for but of course never did.

I think that Lindsey's quote from the CA government website makes a pretty strong case that DAZ should not be collecting sales tax for California.

Unless there is some other aspect to the law we aren't seeing that DAZ knows about, but the new legislation for online retailers for CA that goes into effect this fall seems AFAIK aimed at sales that would have been taxed otherwise, and this seems like a solid exemption for software downloads.